Author: Sally Ruan (Page 2 of 2)

Filippo Tommaso Marinetti is a Italian poet and the founder of the futurist movement. He wanted people to break free from traditions and embrace the technological things. “We went up to the three snorting machines to caress their breasts.” This shows that Marinetti was fascinated and is obsessed with machinery. Marinetti believes that technology is the future.

Aleksandr Rodchenko, Varvara Stepanova and Aleksei Gan, were members of The Constructivist Group. “Rodchenko utilized new technology and mass production in an attempt to give form not just to revolutionary concepts of functionalism and economy but to ideal Soviet citizens as well.” They had similar view with Marinetti, by encouraging artists to break free from tradition and embrace the future with technology.

El Lissitzky traveled around Europe and the US spreading constructivism. In “Our Book” Lissitzky talks about book design while dreaming about the future. Lissitzky was kinda disappointed with the book development. “Notwithstanding the crises that book production is suffering, in common with other areas of production, the book glacier is growing year by year.” “Then comes further growth of the communications network and increase in the volume of communications; then radio eases the burden.” But then at the same time, he is also looking forward to what the future will have. Each of these authors have similar views. They believe the technology would be a great addition to the future and will change the way of how creativity is used.

There are many different languages around the world. To me language is a method to communicate with others. English, French, Chinese, Spanish, Russian, these are some examples of languages that humans use to communicate with each other. Animals also have their own language. Communication is different from language because communication is exchanging a conversation by interacting with one another in many different ways. Language plays a huge role in design. Designers use languages to send a message behind their work.

Languages are not limited to just words. “Language is limited by nothing in the choice of means, for apparently nothing would prevent the associating of any idea whatsoever with just any sequence of sounds.” (Saussure). Symbols and icons are also related to language because that is another way on how people communicate. For example, fast food restaurants have disability icons in parking lots, male and female icons for the restroom and more. When people see those icons, they understand what it means. Back in the old times around 8000 B.C., Sumerians used tokens as a counting technique. “A counting technique used by the Sumerians beginning around 8000 B.C. involved small “tokens” manufactured out of clay. (Miller) This example shows that tokens were used to record transactions, but we use money now.

Signs are an object people use to express a meaning, this includes graphic communication. For example stop signs, drivers use that to stop and check if any pedestrians are waiting to cross the road. Pedestrians use the stop signs on the road to check if any car is coming before crossing. This is a way people can communicate by just using signs. Archaic numbering started in ancient times, it has since evolved and expanded to what we have now.

According to the authors, the role that design plays in the world today is that everything is a design, it’s in our everyday lives. “The designer of today re-establishes the long lost contact between art and the public, between living people and art as a living thing.” (Bruno Munari) What distinguishes the fields of design from other creative occupations is the different ways they do their work. For example, “The designer works in a vast sector of human activity: there is visual design, industrial design, graphic design and research design.” (Bruno Munari) This shows that there are many different fields in the design world that have their own job in their names. Designers should concern themselves with unsolvable theoretical questions because it requires a lot of thinking and thinking can lead to great ideas. Unsolvable questions help the brain to create answers.

The role technology plays today in shaping design professions is that technology has made it easier. Designers are able to communicate and connect to each other easily with social media. For example, “Creating design theory is about building one’s own community, constructing a social network that questions and illuminates everyday practice—making it visible.”(Helen Armstrong)  Technology plays an important role today, everywhere you go, there will always be some type of technology near you. 

Some of the most urgent problems designers face today is keeping up with market demands. For example, “The designer is therefore the artist of the day, because he has the ability to respond to whatever demand is made of him by the society in which he lives” (Bruno Munari) There are always new trends being created and many different design styles that will be needed to create them. It is a designer’s responsibility to solve these problems because it is part of their job as designers. To create for others you must be able to keep up with them.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dgf2xqRb5IxHjhdDvptScGXcSx-9wi7h/view?usp=sharing